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Show . HIGH CHURCH PRACTICES. . - ' " " """ i In these days when outside the j Catholic church religion is so fre- quently subordinated to sociology and utilty made the criterion of doc- , trine and disclnlinft it ia rpfrpshin"- to turn to an address recently made by Bishop Potter, which was full of poetic- beauty. Only a gentleman could have spoken as he did. The Bishop's English is admirable, but his logic is halting. He has the inability in-ability to state his position clearly that makes Lord Rosebery's addresses ad-dresses the points of departure for ' widely differing interpretations. The bishop finds the word "Protestant" too negative, too bare of traditions and memorials of the golden past. And in doing this he merits the sympathy of all -who appreciate the embarrassment embarrass-ment of an illogical position. Here in Washington historical connections! were attempted with the ancient Abbey Ab-bey of Glastonbury, and, gradually, when Henry the Eighth and his son Edward and the changes in the Book of Common Prayer can be gradually shoved out of sight, a pedigree carefully care-fully stained and weather marked to resemble the real . thing can be presented. pre-sented. The Protestant Episcopal church is painfully new. From Edward's time to about 1S45 it delighted in getting rid of the trappings of old Rome. The ! crucifix, the incense, the candles in j fact, all symbols that savored of the i , time before Cranmer were banned and excluded. A cope, a chasuble, a 1 mitre in St. 'Paul's in London would , have rent the whole fabric of Protestant Protes-tant Eplscopalianism with horror. But 1 only the ether day the bishop of London officiated with mitre, cope, and crozier in this same St. Paul's. ' There are "high celebrations" .at ' various Ritualistic churches in this country which are so profuse in sym- holism that the ordinary High Mass iu a Catholic church seems rather "low" by comparison. Of course, the ( use of the mitra, crozier, and cope t in St. Paul's cathedral settles their legality as parts of worship in the i Protestant Church in England. Kev- ertheless. they are out of place in a Protectant church just as much ( out of place as Puritanic simplicity of e ceremonial in a Gothic cathedral. Poetic beauty cannot be . reconciled S with that word "Protestant," which is as odious to the modern ritualist as itvwould have been to that sturdy $ old Communist, John Wy cliff. Since e Lord Halifax's brave efforts to unite English and American Episcopalians 3 with Rome have failed, the term Pro- ; testant seems more than ever like a bar sinister in the arms of the P. E. S church. An American Protestant Episcopalian hesitates to call himself an Anglican; he cannot with con- sistency call himself a Catholic. Here ft is a great deal in a word, after all. Copes, croziers, and mitres; candles, incense, and statues of saints are not & Protestant. What are they? -The J New Century. n C |